The crew has been under-brushing, running lines, staking out and opening holes for the last few months in preparation for planting trees and the time is finally here! Over the next few months all of the 15,000+ cacao saplings that we germinated and grew in our nursery will be planted as the midstory crop in our agroforestry system. We do this annually but it is always exciting to see the trees leaving the nursery on the way to their permanent home!
Here the Finca Chocolat crew is selecting and loading plants into the trailers to be sent to the fields.
One of the advantages of the topography at Finca Chocolat is that it allows us to use tractors and trailers to support much of our work. As the farm is 515 acres the distance between the nursery and where these trees will be planted is nearly half a mile and we would never be able to afford to work at this scale without mechanization.
Once in the right section of the the farm the plants are offloaded and then carried the rest of the way under the canopy for planting.
It is hard work in a difficult environment but the cacao thrives under the shade provided by the surrounding canopy of trees.
It is a bit difficult to see but if you look closely you will notice a row of stakes next to which a cacao sapling in a nursery bag has been placed to be planted.
With proper attention and care these saplings will begin to produce cacao in 4 years and continue to do so for many decades.